Series 6 — Episode 23
Homicide and Old Lace

Regional broadcasts

Broadcaster	Date	Time
Thames Television	26/03/1969	8.00pm
ATV Midlands	21/03/1969	8.00pm
Granada Television	6/07/1969	8.25pm
Anglia Television	20/08/1969	8.00pm
Border Television	2/04/1969	8.00pm
Channel Television	7/06/1969	8.25pm
Grampian Television	26/03/1969	8.00pm
Southern Television	18/06/1969	8.00pm
Scottish Television
Tyne Tees Television	26/03/1969	8.00pm
Ulster Television	21/03/1969	8.00pm
Westward Television	7/06/1969	8.25pm
Harlech Television	21/03/1969	8.00pm
Yorkshire Television	29/03/1969	8.00pm

TV Times listing

International broadcasts

Broadcaster	Date	Time
ABN2 Sydney, Australia	13/06/1969	8.00pm
ABQ2 Brisbane, Australia	27/06/1969	8.30pm
ABV2 Melbourne, Australia	16/02/1970	9.00pm
ABS2 Adelaide, Australia	5/06/1969	8.00pm
ABC New York, USA	17/03/1969	7.30pm
ORTF2 France	12/12/1970	8.30pm
Suisse Romande, Switzerland
French title	Homicide et vieilles dentelles (9)
ZDF Germany	15/12/1970	9.00pm
German title	Mutters Erzählungen
KRO Netherlands	2/07/1971	8.21pm
Dutch title	Moord en oude kant
TTI Italy	13/1/1982 C5
Italian title	Omicidio e vecchi merletti
Spain	29/12/1969	11.05pm
Spanish title	Homicidio y encaje

This episode was one of five that were left out of the initial run of series 6 in Melbourne, Australia, and was eventually rescreened in 1970 after the “Steed’s Choice” series of repeats of seven selected episode from series 5. ABS2 Adelaide was the first Australian channel to broadcast this episode as they moved it up the order.

This episode was not broadcast in Switzerland.

This was the last episode of this series shown in Germany, replaced by “Department S”. Despite having only shown ten episodes out of thirty-two, ZDF did not return to the series.

Continuity & Trivia

1. Running time: 50′04″
2. 2:13 — Another dusty outing for the caption scanner, the opening credits are quite gritty.
3. 2:13 — The captions start with just the word ‘Homicide’, then expand to the full titles and finally are augmented after a second with a lace overlay on the screen.
   
4. 2:13 — the music under the opening titles is taken from the Mackiedockie Court sequences from ESCAPE
5. This episode is a cheapie! Half of it is recycled footage from Emma Peel episodes (the cast members and killings with the coloured background denote the recycled footage); the rest of it is recycled footage from the abandoned “The Great Great Britain Crime”, filmed in late 1967 under John Bryce’s production.

   We have:

   • 5:06 (5:02) — Elrick being chased by Verett and Robin across the scaffolding from The Bird Who Knew Too Much.
   • 5:46 — Repeat of footage from 5:29.
   • 6:27 (6:10) — Danvers being stalked by Robin from The Bird Who Knew Too Much.
   • 7:21 (6:56) — Hubert, Mickle, Wilson and Martin repeating their actions from Murdersville.
   • 15:51 (15:40) — Gilbert trying to kill Steed with a bulldozer, straight from The Fear Merchants.
   • 16:55 (16:24) — Professor Stone reiterating his murderous mechanical attack upon Steed from Never, Never Say Die
6. 8:19 — A word has been removed from Patrick Newell’s sentence “He would deliver it at Steed’s apartment --- personally”.
7. 9:49 — The driver of the van (maybe George Hilsdon) is not the man who was driving it up until around 9:04.
8. 10:30 — older footage from John Bryce’s shoots, colour shifted and dirty.
9. 13:50–14:10 — Brian Clemens pokes fun at John Bryce : Mother’s Aunt Harriet questions Tara being a blonde, “Just a minute. You made Tara King a blonde... I’ve seen her, she’s a brunette.” — Mother bluster a retort, “If I wish to make Tara sky blue, pink, I will!”
10. 14:29 — Even with the stocking over her head, it’s clearly Cyd Child & Paul Weston.
11. 14:57 — Steed’s calling card, dropped into the bucket, reads: 460–9618 / John Steed, 3 Stable Mews, City of London.
12. 15:25/15:35 — Freddie Cartwright is shot, mistaken for Steed as he’s wearing one of Steed’s suits — not only that, he’s also getting out of what was originally intended to be Steed’s car for the series, the maroon AC 428 Frua.
    I strongly suspect the original scene in “The Great Great Britain Crime” was of Steed being ambushed by Intercrime (or Murder-International, or whoever they are...) Strangely, Maxwell Craig also played Wilson, uncredited, in Murdersville and that footage was reused earlier in this episode at 7:21.
13. 15:49 — Some odd editing: cutting away in the middle of zooming in on Mother to a profile shot of his Aunts, then cutting back to the zoomed shot.
14. 16:38 — Product placement for Herbert Johnson & Sons.
15. 18:21 — The photo of Tara in the file is one of Linda Thorson’s standard promotional stills.
16. 18:22 — Is this the only outing of the Lotus 2+2?
17. 18:30 — That’s some fancy driving by Romo Gorrara in the green mini and Cyd Child in the Lotus.
18. 19:09 — Reused close-up of Fuller from 15:08.
19. 19:10 — Fuller tells Steed that Intercrime’s address is 199 Royal Avenue, SW7.
20. 19:33 — A piano version of the theme tune is played in the background.
21. 20:16 — Dunbar’s office looks like it’s part of the set of Emma Peel’s flat from Series Five.
22. 23:56 — Mother oddly says, “Dubios had opened the safe in 59 and point 15 seconds flat” — Flat is usually used to mean exactly, and there’s no fraction at all. Mother lates sys that Tara beats the time “at the proverbial last moment”, I assume that means 59.14 seconds.
23. 24:35 — Product placement for a Stadion 7 Jewels stopwatch.
24. 25:14 onwards — You can see the shadow of the boom microphone on the wall above the lift.
25. 26:25 — you can see the boom microphone in to top centre-right of the screen as we cut to Tara, having feigned a faint, in the chair.
26. 26:45 — Colonel Corf shows Steed his favourite painting, “The Monarch of the Glen”.
27. 27:22 — Product placement for Thomas Withers safes.
28. 30:35 — You can just see the boom microphone waver at the top of the screen above Macnee’s head when we cut to the long shot.
29. 37:28 — The driver starts moving before the henchman can get in and the scene is abruptly cut before it becomes apparent.
30. 37:50 — Obvious use of a still frame while Tara disposes of the scientist (over which terrible corny sound effects are played).
31. 40:16–40:50 — Classic padding: the aunts recap the entire plot of the episode so far.
32. 41:48/41:51/41:57 — CU of Mother is OOF
33. 44:24 and throughout — Colonel Corf’s medals are:
    British Empire Medal, Military Cross, 1939–45 Star
    Africa Star, France and Germany Star, Defence Medal, War Medal 1939–1945
34. 46:45 — Steed’s killing of the African delegate with his sword stick has been cut from the final print.
35. 49:50 — Patrick Newell says “Gottle of Geer” while pretending to ventriloquise and Patrick Macnee and Rhonda Parker burst out laughing.
36. 49:52 — The closing credits start with the fanfare played by Izzy Pound in The Interrogators, then becomes a silent movie style soundtrack version of the theme tune, then bizarrely ends with the Series 5 fanfare.

The Transport

Marque	Colour	Number
Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III Saloon 1963	white	3 KMH
Austin 1800	maroon	JYT 518D
Jaguar Mk II 2.4 1960	cream	338 DYU
BMC 250 JU Minibus 1967	white with purple Orpheus Tours signs	KVF 10K
Rolls-Royce Phantom I H.J. Mulliner [80KR] 1929	pale lemon	UU 3864
Rover 2000 P6 1966	sky blue	JLL 376D
Austin Mini Super Deluxe Mk I 1963i	green	135 FAC
AC 428 Frua Drophead Convertible Coupé 1965 Prototype (CF1)	maroon	LPH 800D
Fowler bulldozer	yellow	LYV 100
Lotus Elan +2 (Type 50) 1967	red	NPW 999F
Morris Mini	red	BMU 837A
Winchester Mk.III Taxi 1967	black	SRK 943F
Morris Minor O-Type 1957 van	green (Post Office)	?
Austin A152 Omnicoach or Morris J2 Minibus 1966	white with purple Orpheus Tours signs	GYP 682D
Morris FE Mk III 1955 removals van	blue	JML 59

Who’s Killing Whom?

Victim	Killer	Method
Freddie Cartwright	Thug	bren gun
Thug (?)	Tara	sub-machine gun
African delegate	Steed	Umbrella sword stick
Osaka	Steed	automatic pistol
Thug	Tara	sub-machine gun
Elrick	Robin	falls off scaffold into wet cement
Danvers	Robin	sub-machine gun
Martin	Wilson	pistol shots
Gilbert	Steed	crushed by bulldozer

The Fashions

Tara pastel orange one-piece culotte suit with pvc thigh boots sky blue overcoat over black rollneck skivvy, skirt, long gloves and boots cream plaid miniskirt with tan skivvy and cream stocking and shoes, brown leather belt bright orange one-piece culotte suit with pvc thigh boots tan one-piece culotte suit with pvc thigh boots, leopard spot fur coat cream double-breasted overcoat, pale grey sleeveless one-piece culotte suit, brown belt, with pvc thigh boots and black leather gloves

Steed grey three-piece suit, covered pockets, two vents, with cream shirt and burgundy tie navy suit (felt collar) with white shirt and navy tie, black bowler (reused footage from The Fear Merchants) grey/brown/green sports coat with brass buttons, 2 vents, 1 button on pockets (2 hip, breast), 2 buttons on cuffs, 3 buttons (forest green with spots cravat, brown bowler, beige/khaki shirt, houndstooth(?) pants) (reused footage from Never, Never Say Die) light grey three-piece suit, flapped pockets, two vents, with cream shirt and electric blue tie, dove grey bowler & umbrella grey three-piece suit, covered pockets, two vents, with cream shirt and magenta tie, grey bowler & umbrella grey three-piece suit, covered pockets, two vents, with blue pin-striped cream shirt and bronze tie, brown suede shoes grey three-piece suit, covered pockets, two vents, with blue pin-striped pale yellow shirt and purple tie